Improvement in car-axles



o. B. BARBS.

` Car-Axle.

No. 223,095. Patemed Dec. 80,1879.

Ry. z. w Ey. a

7172712888 es Ein/67221073 YLPETERS, PHm-LRNOGRAPHER. WASHIMGTQN. D G.

Un'rrnn 'rafrns Paran'r Qnr'roa; I

CHARLES E. BARNES, OF BOSTON, MASSAGHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAR-AXLES.

Specification formng part of Letters Patent No. 223,095. dated December 30, 1879; application filed November 28, 1879.

To all 'whom 'it may concert,

Be it known that I, OHARLEs E. BAnNEs, of Boston, county of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Railway-Oar Axles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to means for enabling the Wheels of railway-car trucks to adapt themselves to curves in the track by permitting one to turn independently of the other. To accomplish this result I use a divided axle the inner ends of which are formed With eircumferential grooves and ribs, and are inelosed in a correspondingly ribbed and grooved box; and to obtain suffieient bearing-surfaee, and to avoid weakeni n g the axle-sections, I form the grooves therein in such nianner as to diminish in depth from the center toward the ends of the divided axle. I also make use of a soft-metal lining in the box, in order to obtain more perfect bearin g for the axle and to rednce friction.

The drawings accompanying this specification represent, in Figure l, a longitudinal sectional elevation, and in Fig. 2 a cross-section, of a railway-car axle and Wheels containing my invention, while Fig. 3is an inside view of one of the box-plates. i

In said drawings, A represents the axle, and B B the Wheels, of a railway-car truck, the latter being secured to and tnrning with the former.

In carryiug my invention into practice I di- Vide the axle centrally, or practieally so, into two parts, co and b, and I turn in the inner ends of each part several circnmferential annular grooves, c c' (22, &c., these grooves preferably decreasing in depth from the innermost one, c, outward, in order that a sufficient bearingsurface may be obtained between the axles and the inelosing-box to withstand the thrusts and strains upon the parts, and to avoid weakening the axle, which it will be seen I accomplish, as the grooves nearly or quite vanish into the circumference of the axle as they recede from the center, thus leaving the diameter of such 'axle intact toward or at the outer ends of the box.

The box which incloses and confines the inner ends of the axle is shown at O as composed of two parts or halves, d confined securely together by bolts, and provided with suitable To reduce friction and wear upon the inner' ends of the axle I employ Babbitt or anti-friction metal, and to introduce it I oast in each half of the box a series of semi-aunular grooves, g g, of larger diameter and width than those of the axles, and fill the intervening spaces with the soft metal, as shown by a heavy black line in Fig. 1, and at 8 in Figs. 2 and 3, of the drawings, by means of holes h h in one half of the box. By means of the intermediate softmetal paeking I obtain a perfect bearing,` about the axle and reduce friction.

My invention is equally applicable to old and new axles. When'applied to old axles (in which case the axle would neeessarily be shortened in cutting it in the center) the box should be cast with a central shelfor partition, i, which,

in eonjunotion with the soft metal, shall compensate for the metal cut from the axle.

In fact, in applying my invention to new axles it may be desirable to separate the ends of the axle by the partition last named.

VVhen running upon a straight track the Wheels, if of uniform size, revolve at equal rates of speed, the box O rotates by and with the axle, and 110 wear comes upon the parts, as the friction between the box and the inner ends of the axle is considerably greater than upon the outer journals of the axle.

VV hen describing a curvature in the track, one wheel tends to rotate faster than the other, and hencemnst slip upon the rail, and the frietion thns caused overcomes the friction between the box O, and the opposite end of the axle rota-tes in the box to an extent equal to the difference in rotation of the two Wheels.

It will thus be seen that the inner ends of the axle rotate within the box-axle at short intervals of time; hence the wear would be very slight.

The box cannot become loosened or separated, and the device is extremely simple and strong in construction.

I claim- 1. The axle in two parts and connected by the central box, in combination With suitable interlocking ribs and grooves upon the two, of the aXle-sections, and provided with an ansaid ribs and grooves diminishing in depth ti-friction or soft-metal paeking` which lines its from the center of the aXle, snbstantially as ribs and grooves on all sides, as set forth. herein described. 3. The Channels or grooves in the axle and 2. The combination of the parts, as herein box, as (lminishing in depth from the center explained, consisting Of the aXle in two porof the axle outward, substantially as deseribed.

tions, and eontaining circulnferential grooves GHAS. E. BARNES. and ribs diminishing` in depth, as deseribed, Wtnesses:

j the correspondingly ribbed and grooved box F. OURTIS,

in two or more parts, inelosing'the inner ends H. E. LODGE. 

